The Work Day

I was just having a conversation recently about how you can know people all your life and still not really know what they do for a living. You may know the company or their title, but what's behind all of that? In an effort to unravel the work-day mysteries, here's a peek behind the veil of the Monday through Friday, 8 till 5 work day for Jeff J:

(The drive) (The office)
(The cube) (The view)

Questions??

Greyhound Planet

Greyhound Planet is a time set aside each year (Sept. 17 - 24th this year) to raise public awareness of greyhounds throughout the world.

Here's to the 40 mph couch potato!

Swap those old CD's

In looking to clean out the clutter of no longer listened to CD's, I had a couple options. Put them on ebay (not enough of them to make it worth my while), take them to a local music store, (not a great option cause you need to trade 10 to get 1, or you can cash them in for $1.25 each which is a joke), or give them away. But giving things away without getting something in return can be soooo ungratifying...

Okay, not really - but which of my friends is going to want my old Duran Duran anyways?! So I stumbled on this swap site LaLa.com

I set up a free account and listed the CD's that I wanted to part with. After that I made a list of the ones I wanted. Now the only catch is that they need to be in the La La database, so a local band's CD without a barcode probably can't be listed (though "Initiation" was on there!).

After you've made your lists you get an email when another member identifies a disc of yours they would like. La La sends you the postage paid mailing envelopes and CD holders, and you ship it out. Once you've shipped one, you will get an email that one of the discs on your "want" list is being sent to you, and they bill you $1.75. That's the only cost.

You can't list your CD's in order of preference because they can only send the ones that other members have, and apparently the database is simply one of many possible CD options, but not necessarily available (until someone lists it).

I traded away four of mine and received Peter Gabriel "4", Peter Gabriel "Security", Genesis "Duke" and David Sylvian (w/Fripp) "Gone to Earth. All discs I've wanted for awhile now.

This is a great way to get some new music, and for those of you with Ipods, why not trade some of your discs, get a new one for less than 2 bucks, rip it and trade it back even!

Hey - just trying to help you guys live a clutter-free lifestyle! And no, I don't work for La La either!

Folkloric Productions Dance Co.

Got to play djembe (and the singing bowl) for a cool gig with the Folkloric Dance Company Sept. 8th and 9th. We provided the drumming for the Folkloric dancers at the beginning and the end of the show, and in between were able to sit back and enjoy performances by the Bellyqueen Dance Theater and music by Pete List.

A great evening of Samba and belly dancing, frantic percussion and looped music by one-man-band Pete List, who I have to say was reminiscent of Adrian Belew at Buffalo State awhile back. Pete would play a lick, record it and loop it, play over the top and record and loop that, sing and then harmonize over the top of it. It was mind-boggling to think that he could keep track of all of that, and the effect was mesmerizing. Unfortunately no pics of the bellydance troupe or Pete (sorry). Check out their sites instead!

Making Love the Bruce Campbell Way!

Well, finally my computer is back up and I can share the fabulous story of the day Gigi and I met a famous movie star/author.

So we go to Borders at 6:30 to meet Bruce Campbell (see previous post for more details) and the lady at the door says "You need a number to meet Bruce and you have to have a book to get a number." No problem, cause I was buying one anyways. So I get the book and she gives me number 290! Two-Nine-Zero!! I thought there would be like 75 people at this thing and it turns out there were over 300! Grrrrr.....

Well we get in line and I can hear that he has come to the meeting table, but I can't see anything from my magazine rack position except for the freak in front of me carrying a bell, a glass jar, a headless James Dean lifesize cutout, a bathrobe and a wind-up lizard. Don't ask. Gigi goes up to hear some of the talk and then they start calling numbers about a half-hour after I get in line. "Now taking numbers 1 - 50". At least we know we don't have to stand there the whole time.

Needless to say, we browsed the store, read two magazines each, both of us started reading the book, had some coffee and desert and finally got back in line before (drum roll please....) MIDNIGHT! We actually got a second wind at around 10:30 and figured "what the hell, we've been here this long".

Bruce signed two items (the book and an Army of Darkness postcard I had) and posed for a picture with us. He told us to "stay groovy" and was actually really patient with every single person that came up. That is aside from the freak in front of me earlier. When the guy said he was going to "learn how to make love" and then opened Bruce's book and proceeded to lick the pages, Bruce told him to "get your s___ out of here". But he did say it with a smile!

All in all, very much worth it for us. "Stay groovy!" How cool is that!?